Tuesday, March 29, 2011

When my mom was visiting she offered to make salmon in a pouch. It is something she makes almost every time she visits. On this visit she somehow tricked me into making it for her. It went something like this:

Mom: "Kris, I'm going to make salmon pouches tonight."

Me: "That sounds awesome!"

2 hours later.

Mom: "I can't remember how to make the salmon pouches."

Me: "Fine, I'll make them."

She is so sneaky!!!

The salmon turnes out perfect every time. My favorite part is that everyone gets their own little salmon gift to open before they can dive in.

I serve with potato fries and asparagus. This meal is fun and it really brings me out of my dinner rut. Meat is not my favorite thing to cook, hubs usually does it. But this is so easy, that I am always confident it is going to come out perfect every time

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Here is a sneak peek at the fabrics I am using for my nephew's quilt. The large piece with all the animals on it is going to be the back, the stripes are the binding and the rest makes up the front of the quilt. I picked up everything I needed on Friday and used all my coupons! I was on a savings high. I love coupons.

For the pattern I am using this First Quilt Ever tutorial by Care over at Obsessively Stitching. I followed this tutorial last year and made my first quilt. It was really easy to follow. Care has great instructions, she is amazing and has fantastic ideas. The ironing and cutting have begun. Hopefully I can work on this and some other things at the same time. I am going to try some sewing multitasking.

Friday, March 25, 2011

This contest is so much fun, I can't wait to see what everyone else made!! I think that is the best part. I wish this month would have been less busy so I could have made another shirt. I'll get that shirt made soon, I hope!

Where I got the idea:

My little bro was OBSESSED with Ghostbusters when he was a kid. I have seen that movie hundreds if not a thousand times and I like it too, it is a hilarious movie. Well my bro is having a baby boy in June. As soon as I found out he was having a boy I knew I had to make my nephew a Ghostbuster shirt. PB needed a shirt too, they will be busting ghosts together of course!

How I did it:

I did freezer paper stencil for the words and the ghost. I found an image of the ghost through the google image search and used that as a guide. I painted the ghost on white fabric and cut it out and backed it with wonder under. The red strike out is red fabric backed with wonder under. The ghost and strike out were ironed onto the shirt and sewn in place. Sewing the ghost was very time consuming, I actually hand cranked my machine because there were so many small turns. Sewing the red strike out was much easier.

I let my bro pick the orange item this week. I was surprised he didn't pick a vase because he always makes fun of the number of vases that are in the house especially orange ones. So he picked my orange paintings. I got the canvases a few years ago at big lots for $5. When we moved to this house I finally painted them. They sit between 2 windows in our lounge.

This might be my fav pic from the weekend. PB was obsessed with "uncle" and wanted him to chase him everywhere. He still wakes up every morning and says "uncle."

This has been a crazy 2 weeks! We were sick, had a few days with my bro and this week I was busy working on a display board for my MOMS Club luncheon that is Saturday and my shirt entry for the I Am Momma- Hear Me Roar shirt contest. Things should be back to normal next week. Today I am getting fabric for my nephew's quilt. Joann Fabric Stores has a great coupon this weekend 25% off your total purchase of sale and regular price items. I can't wait to combine that with my other coupons!! Happy Orange Friday!!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Happy Orange Friday!!! These are my kitchen scissors, they got a workout this week. PB and I were sick so these scissors opened lots of cold medicine :) These are actually great kitchen scissors. I found them on clearance at TJ Maxx. This was a very long week with Hubby traveling and us being sick. I am happy to say that PB and I are on antibiotics and are feeling much better. My bro is coming for a visit from AZ this weekend and we are so excited. PB has been saying uncle all day!! Happy Weekend!!!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy. Turn mixer to low and add vanilla and egg. Alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients. Pour into lined cupcake pans. Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out almost clean

Beat butter until smooth. Add sugar, milk, vanilla and almond. Beat until spreadable. Use a knife to cut a cone-shape out of the top of the cupcake. Cut the bottom off the cone, fill hole with creme and top with the remainder of the cone.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I saw this pattern for Owl Stuffies about a month ago on Hammer & Thread and knew exactly what I would make for the small group of kids that were going to be at PB's party. The pattern and tutorial were really easy to follow and I whipped these up really quick!

PB loved them all lined up. He kept saying, "hoot!"

I planned 2 crafts for the party. Since it was a Timmy Time theme I had the kiddos make little Timmy puppets. I made the Timmy ahead of time and they glued on the cotton balls.

PB loves owls so that was our next craft. I had all the pieces cut out and had the parents trace their child's hand and cut it out for the wings. All the kiddos had to do was glue the pieces down.

They needed a way to bring home their craft so I got some white bags 2 for $1 at the dollar store and glued some Timmy heads on them to make them festive. I wrote the kids names on the backs of the bags.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

These are coconut cupcakes with butter cream frosting. I made the sheep heads out of fondant. This was my first time playing with fondant, it was really fun! I bought the fondant at the store, next time I will try to make my own.

Owl Cupcakes:

They didn't turn out the way I thought they would, splitting Oreos is hard!! So the owls were a little ugly, but man they were really delicious!! These are dark chocolate cupcakes with a cream filling and dark chocolate icing. The eyes are Oreos and Junior Mints. The beaks are fondant. I'll post this recipe on Thursday. I am definitely making these cupcakes again.

Osbourne's After School Special:

I made a fun drink for the adults

It is Limoncello, lemonade, club soda and a teaspoon of blueberry basil syrup.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Peanut Butter is crazy for Timmy Time. It is the cutest show made by the same guys who do Wallace and Gromit. He goes nuts when we put the show on and makes all the sounds of the characters when he sees them. The best is when PB see Timmy, the sheep. PB can "baaaa" just like a real sheep, it is hysterical. Anyway, since he loves this show so much, I thought it would be the perfect theme for his party.

Here is a look at all the decorations:

Hanging Decorations:

I'll admit it, I went a little crazy. I painted all the characters on poster board (2 for $1 at the dollar store) and cut them out. PB was so excited when I was painting these, he knew exactly who they were.

Here is how I did it:

The Timmy Time website has color sheets and games and that is where I got the images for the characters. To make it easy on myself I traced them onto transparency paper and projected them onto the poster board. I could have spent the time drawing each one but this saved so much time! I know it is weird to have an overhead projector in your house, but I guess being a little bit of a hoarder is paying off :)

The Timmy kid's table:

This was my mom's idea, she is brilliant!! I used big roll paper to cover my coffee table and I drew and cut out a large Timmy head out of black poster board from the dollar store. I used a silver sharpie to draw the features on his face. The kids did their craft here and ate here.

Flocks of sheep:

We cut out 24 sheep from dollar store poster board. I quick drew these and my mom cut them out and glued them. We hung them all over the house.

Sheep centerpiece:

I saw this a few weeks ago on WhipperBerry and it inspired me to make the sheep for the centerpiece. I punched flowers out of 4 pieces of cardstock to make 3 sheep. I used a floral ring from the dollar store and wooden skewers to attach the sheep. The sheep faces are cut from black card stock. The words around the centerpiece are cut from yellow card stock and pinned on. The grass is 2 pieces of green card stock, cut in half the long way and then fringed to look like grass. Then I stuffed some extra cotton balls from the dollar store in to cover the floral ring.

Friday, March 11, 2011

This is my organizer I keep next to the garage door on our ledge. I keep my stamps, blank cards, thank you cards, return address stickers, paper pads, coupons and take out menus in the organizer. This is one of the things I tackled in the reorganization of my house. I found some weird stuff in there and stamps from 5 years ago :)

This weekend is Peanut Butter's 2nd Birthday.

PB 2 years old

I just can't believe he is 2. These past 2 years at home with him have gone by so fast!

PB 2 days old

I feel so lucky that I get to be with him all day. I am grateful that my Hubby works so hard so I can stay home with PB. I am grateful that he pushed me and supported me to start this blog. Lastly, I am grateful for my readers!! Happy Orange Friday!

Next week I will be sharing all the fun things I made for the party!! I can't wait!!!!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

I am so happy the house is clean. I love looking back at the before pics. It is a nice motivator to keep things clean. Obviously I organized more than what I showed here. I wanted to show you the messiest and worst of my house. I mean, that's what you want to see right? I can't be the only person with a messy house!! When people come over, there is always the illusion that it is neat and that is because I bust my butt the day before getting it clean. Usually my coffee table is full of projects and random stuff, 1/2 of my kitchen table is filled with junk, and there is a giant mail pile on the counter. Oh and there are always toys everywhere because I only pick up at night. I applaud people who can keep things clean and clutter free. Clutter free is just not who I am :)

I hope you feel a little motivated to tackle even a small job. Many of the things I had on my list only took 5-10 minutes to do. Imagine what you can change in just 5-10 minutes a day. Well I guess if I spent 10 minutes cleaning everyday my house wouldn't get so messy :)

Hi, my name is Kris. Welcome to everywhere orange! I'm a high school art teacher taking a break to be at home with my 5 and 1 year old sons. I have always enjoyed crafting and cooking, but in the last 5 years at home I finally had the time to really explore new things in the kitchen and focus on my craftiness at home. The color orange and I go way back, long before I met my husband 16.5 years ago. I wanted a place I could share recipes and the crafty things I make and some orange. Thanks for stopping by!!